1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally related to multimedia delivery over the Internet. Particularly, the present invention is related to techniques, when properly combined, for providing instantaneous media-on-demand (MOD) including services, systems and methods for the same. Further, the present invention is related to techniques for providing a dynamic library of many titles from which a user can select and instantly play back.
2. Description of the Related Art
Whether it is an elder telling a story by the fire or a family sitting in front of the television during dinner, humans have an innate need to hear stories and to be entertained. It is unbelievable how many televisions and/or radios each household has. In fact, it is estimated that every household has 2.3 televisions and that people watch television an average of five (5) hours per day. These statistics and human propensities motivate cable providers, satellite providers, video rental companies, Blockbuster Inc., NetFlix.com, etc. to invest millions of dollars to offer videos, television and movie broadcasts, premium movie channels, pay-per-view, etc. to customers.
Traditionally, each television viewer was satisfied to have four (4) or five (5) television channels offering a few shows and to go to the cinema for more exciting movie content. However, today's audiences have become more demanding, expecting so much more from television at home, including a large variety of more sophisticated dramas, comedies, adventures, horrors, etc. To satisfy this demand, the majority of television viewers subscribe to cable or satellite services, the basic service alone offering significantly more channels and premium broadcasts than regular television.
Still, customers remain unsatisfied. In response, cable and satellite services offer movie channel subscriptions. Each movie channel offers a limited number of relatively new releases of movie broadcasts at pre-selected times. A viewer can review movie lists and movie schedules, and plan to watch selected movies when they are offered. If the viewer turns on the television at the right time, the viewer can watch the movie from the beginning. Otherwise, the viewer may have to watch the movie starting from some other point. Alternatively, the viewer can record movies to watch at times more convenient to the viewer (whether using digital video recorders such as that offered by TiVo Inc. or traditional VCRs). Since the number of movies offered by these movie channels are limited, more disciplined viewers may record all desirable movies currently being provided and have to wait until additional titles come available. Since the number of movies offered on movie channels is limited and since the movies start at irregular times, movie channels do not effectively satisfy current customer demand.
Customer appeal of “video on demand” is well known. Generally, true video on demand can be characterized as instantaneous viewing of a movie (or other content) which may be selected from a list of preferably all movies available. Ideally, a server or set of servers will store all movies, will enable customers to select movies, and will stream the movies to the consumers while the customers view the movies without network interruption. However, given the many shortcomings of today's technology and network-related infrastructure, true video on demand is currently unavailable to the general public. Communication capacity and speed in satellite, cable and DSL networks are insufficient, unreliable, unpredictable and inconsistent. Because of the insufficient and inconsistent communication capacity and speed, if true video on demand were available, viewers on a system of today would have to settle for unwanted pauses and other erratic behavior. True video on demand will likely be unavailable to the general public for many years, available only after faster and significantly more reliable and predictable communication channels (e.g., fiber optics) are deployed and faster computing is developed.
In limited circumstances, true VOD is offered today using specialized, reliable networks capable of delivering and maintaining high capacity and speed. Cable “On Demand” is one such service. On Demand provides the ability to instantly download movies for playback, but only if the user is connected to a high speed digital network and if the service provider can support VOD. This service is not available over traditional broadband connections.
Referring now to FIG. 1, there shows a video delivery system 100 that is used for delivering video services over a network. The video delivery system 100 includes a video server 102 that is sometimes referred to as a head-end. Through a data network 104, the video server 102 can provide continuous, scheduled and video-on-demand (VOD) services to respective client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n (i.e., its subscribers). Hence, the system 100 is a typical client-server architecture with one server 102 serving a plurality of client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n. The server 102 is further coupled to a media storage device 112 that may be configured to store various media files (e.g., movies or news footage). The media storage device 112 must be on-line and must store and supply titles scheduled or demanded for delivery to any of the client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n. 
To ensure quality of service (QoS), the bandwidth requirement of the network path (e.g., 108-1, 108-2, . . . 108-n) to each of the client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n has to be sufficient. However, as the number of the subscribers continues to increase, the demand on the bandwidth of the backbone network path 110 increases linearly, and the overall cost of the system 100 increases considerably at the same time. If the server has a fixed bandwidth limit and system support capability, an increase in the number of subscribers beyond a certain threshold will result in slower transfer of data to clients. In other words, the transmission of the video data over the network 104 to the subscribers via the client machines 106-1, 106-2, . . . 106-n is no longer guaranteed. When the video data is not received in a client machine on time, the display of the video data may fail or at least become jittery.
To alleviate such loading problem to the video server 102, a video delivery system often employs multiple video servers, perhaps in multiple locations. Each of the video servers, similar to the video server 102, is configured to support a limited number of subscribers. Whenever the number of subscribers goes beyond the capacity of a video server or the bandwidth thereof, an additional video server needs to be deployed or additional bandwidth needs to be allocated. Subsequently, overall costs go up considerably when more subscribers sign up with the video delivery system 100.
As a simple solution to the video-on-demand limitations, cable and satellite providers offer pay-per-view, namely, a limited number of newer releases starting on average every half hour for about the price of a video rental. Even with pay-per-view, a customer has to select a movie from a limited set, and still has to wait until the broadcast begins. Further, in cases where the set-top box does not support two-way communication with the service provider, the customer has to inconveniently telephone a service to order the selected movie. Pay-per-view is a feeble solution to true video on demand.
Several cable and internet companies are considering other alternatives to true video on demand. One of the better alternative systems of today enables a viewer to select, order, download and view a movie. However, because of slow download speeds and considerable movie size, the viewer has to wait significant time, e.g., one (1) to two (2) hours, for the movie to download. Although in many ways better than pay-per-view, this option is still far from ideal. The solution makes customers wait a long time before receiving the movie, fails to give consumers immediate gratification, and fails to take advantage of impulsive nature of many purchasers.
Satellite providers specifically will have difficulty providing true video on demand or current alternatives because satellite communication offers no return path, i.e., offers only one-way communication from the satellite provider to the customer, and because satellite bandwidth which is sufficient for broadcast (i.e. point-to-multipoint) is insufficient for point-to-point communication. At this time, customers have no way to peruse movie options, request a movie, etc. without some two-way mode of communication. Because of the limited capabilities of satellite networks, satellite providers are at a substantial disadvantage to cable providers who can offer cable, internet broadband, voice over IP, and other network services.
Companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix, Inc. have created business models that attempt to give greater movie options to customers. However, Blockbuster requires customers to get off the sofa, get dressed, go to a hopefully local business establishment, select a movie (which is often unavailable), and return home before being able to start the movie. Netflix allows a customer to order movies from extensive lists, but mails the requested movies using traditional post. Customers have to wait at least several days before a requested movie is received. These two models do not offer anything “on demand.”
There, thus, is a great need for an instantaneous VOD system that allows users to select a desired title among a sizable library and view the ordered title instantaneously.